Kyle MacLachlan Admits ‘Twin Peaks’ Revival ‘Challenging’ for Fans

Showtime’s Twin Peaks may be among our Best of 2017 after only eight episodes, but its unorthodox pace and characterizations have certainly subverted expectation. To that end, Kyle MacLachlan himself calls some of the extended Dougie scenes “challenging,” promising that “everything will come back together and make sense.”

The once and future Coop spoke with The Hollywood Reporter on a wide variety of Twin Peaks topics, among them the addition of Laura Dern as the infamous Diane, and the Showtime revival’s tributes to franchise favorites that have since passed. On the subject of “The Return”’s deliberate pace – not to mention the extremely out-there eighth hour – MacLachlan admitted to some sympathy with frustrated viewers:

I think we all knew it was going to be a challenging journey for the audience, simply because it is 18 parts of one giant piece, and it’s sequential, so people really have to stay with it. And also that David’s storytelling is filled with imagery and different perspectives and characters and things that may initially be confusing to people, but ultimately everything will come back together and make sense. It will be clear. But it’s challenging, you know? The other part of that is there has been a real, complete love from a large part of the audience for this new direction of Twin Peaks. No one has ever seen anything like this on television before. […]

But I knew it would be difficult for people. Many people wanted the nostalgic return to the Twin Peaks that they remembered. And that’s not what we’re representing here. There are a lot of new stories going forward.

MacLachlan also noted that the childlike nature of his “Dougie” doppelgänger was “going to be tricky,” relying on the comedic timing of co-stars like Naomi Watts and Nafessa Williams, as well the audience’s willingness to go along with it. At the very least, MacLachlan seemed to imply that that the eighth episode would serve as an apex (a “peak,” if you will) of David Lynch weirdness, perhaps signaling more straightforward stories for the remaining ten:

I think this whole journey is going to be [one of David Lynch’s seminal works]. I think Part 8 was the culmination. It was an extraordinary sequence. It was certainly challenging to the audience, but just an amazing piece of work to sit there and absorb. It almost makes me feel that this is not a show you can necessarily binge watch. I felt that after I watched the first two hours: “I need some time to process this and think about what just happened, because this is much more complex than just a show you would watch and forget.” It’s very challenging and stimulating, I think.